The European Union is targeting 19 individuals linked to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, including five Russians, in a new list of sanctions set for approval on Monday [9 Feb].

Yeah, that’ll show ’em.

The EU now has visa bans and asset freezes on 132 individuals and 28 entities.

This latest is in response to Russia’s and their rebels’ in Ukraine renewed offensives to expand the Donetsk Oblast territory they hold and to seize Mariupol, a key Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov and a key city on the land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea that Russia wants so desperately.

Never mind that these hand slaps haven’t bothered Russia’s MFWIC, Vladimir Putin. Never mind that he doesn’t think like western Europeans or Americans, and so is never likely to be bothered by the things that would bother western Europeans or Americans.

On the contrary, Russia has reacted with threats and so much sterner actions by the EU and the US are required. Unfortunately, the leaderships are too naïve or incompetent to take them. This…foolishness…is illustrated by our own Secretary of State John Kerry:

We are not interested in a proxy war. Our objective is to change Russia’s behavior[.]

All while ignoring the fact that to change Russia’s behavior, it’s necessary to (to coin a phrase) incentivize them to change their behavior: arm Ukraine so they have the wherewithal to defeat the Russian and Russian-backed rebels, drive the former out of occupied Ukraine, and recover their national integrity.

Update: The EU has chosen to delay even this latest round while French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel travel to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to beg Vladimir Putin anew for peace.